The Impossible Hour.

Fresh off this blog’s hiatus I bring to you Already Broken News. Which means this post is way behind the current cycling news cycle. But I like the idea so much that I still wanted to write about it.

The speculation over the likes of Spartacus and Tony Martin attempting the hour record were put to rest (according the the velonews post) on Christmas when Trek Factory Racing GM Luca Guercilena told La Gazzetta dello Sport that Cancellara “has the hour in his legs” (Note: I couldn’t find the original piece on Gazzetta dello Sport’s page) . There is speculation that Martin and possibly Wiggins would be interested in an attempt as well.

The Inner Ring had a good breakdown of the (simplified) rules and the record’s marketability, none of which I care about. I know that faster times have been set on “non-traditional” bike and those records should stand for something as they are a measure of human sporting achievement (physically and technologically). For me however there is something more compelling about stripping the technology down and making it more about the rider. There is the element of clothing – a science unto itself – and helmet aerodynamics, which is progress that feels silly to roll back (yes I know there is some hypocrisy here, but I’m OK with it.). But overall it still comes down a rider on a stripped down bike.

I’m in love with the idea of today’s rouleurs attempting the hour not because it hearkens back to a time I have no right of nostalgia to, but because the attempt hits at what this blog was originally about. The role of the mind in physical pursuits.